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https://nextcenturyfoundation.wordpress.com/category/iraq/

Friday, May 09, 2008

Sami Faleh Mohammed was one of thousands of exiled Iraqis who after the invasion of Iraq decided to give his country another chance.

In September 2004 he led his wife and three children from the safety of Jordan to Basra, where he found work as a translator for the British Army. Two years later he was dead, murdered by members of the Shia militias who have targeted Iraqis who risk their own lives to help the British try to bring stability to the region.

His case is now one of 12 test claims being brought in the High Court by Iraqi translators and other workers who believe they have been betrayed by Britain. Many more are still in hiding, under sentence of death after being branded "collaborators and spies" by the militias.

On Friday Sami's widow, Suhad Jassim Mohammed, began legal action against the UK government to hold Britain to account over her husband's death. She claims the British Army owed Sami, a trusted worker, a duty of care but failed to honour that duty. As the case is publicly played out in the UK courts, the tragedy of Sami Mohammed will have a resonance for millions of other Iraqis who had likewise invested hope in Britain's intervention in Iraq. For many, that hope has already turned to despair.